There’s something different about these Jonas Valanciunas highlights. Something he doesn’t normally do. Can you figure out?
It’s not very obvious until it gets pointed out. But here it is: instead of pumpfaking a million times when he got the ball in the midrange and only after that taking the shot or driving, Jonas for the most part was decisive and just took the jumper straight up, no messing around.
This is a good thing. Only the least seasoned defenders in the league fell for the fakes (Andre Drummond comes to mind), and a veteran like Zach Randolph was definitely not going to go for it. And it worked. Jonas scored a season-high 23, showcasing all of his offensive arsenal except for three pointers. You want dunks? We got dunks. You want jumpers? We got jumpers. You want post moves? We got post moves.
The only thing we don’t got is blocked shots. They really should give those out more freely. Like if you contest a shot and it doesn’t go in you should get a block, even if you don’t actually touch the ball. This is a good idea.